Red One: New original movie
Buy used
£6.51
FREE delivery 30 December - 2 January. Details
Arrives after Christmas. Need a gift sooner? Send an Amazon Gift Card instantly by email or SMS.
Used: Very Good | Details
Sold by Infinite_Books
Condition: Used: Very Good
Comment: Order will be shipped within 24 hours from our UK based warehouse. Clean, undamaged book with no damage to pages and minimal wear to the cover. We offer a full money back guarantee should you not be satisfied with your order in any way.
Kindle app logo image

Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet or computer – no Kindle device required.

Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.

Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.

QR code to download the Kindle App

Follow the author

Something went wrong. Please try your request again later.

The King is Dead (Murder Room) Paperback – 19 Jun. 2014

4.0 4.0 out of 5 stars 149 ratings

King Bendigo is the wealthiest man alive. He has an enormous security detail on his private island, quite capable of dealing with international aggression. But not threats from within his own family. Fearing for his life, he hires brilliant detective Ellery Queen.

The King's brother Judah makes no secret of wanting him dead. He even gives a date and a time on which he will commit the crime. So when the day comes, the King is kept in a hermetically sealed room while his brother is guarded by Ellery himself.

But the King is still shot...

This is the ultimate in locked door mysteries from a classic master of the genre.

Product description

Book Description

'Ellery Queen IS the American detective story' Anthony Boucher.

About the Author

Ellery Queen is both a fictional detective and the pen name shared by his creators, Brooklyn-born cousins Manfred B. Lee and Frederic Dannay. The character first appeared in a book that won a mystery-writing contest and was eventually published in 1928 as THE ROMAN HAT MYSTERY. The amateur detective character of Ellery Queen shared an apartment with and assisted his father, the NYPD's Inspector Queen. As well as dozens of Ellery Queen novels, the cousins wrote numerous radio scripts and short stories featuring their detective, and were the joint recipients of several EDGAR AWARDs from the Mystery Writers of America, including the 1960 GRAND MASTER AWARD. In their time Lee and Dannay were considered to be the foremost American writers of the Golden Age 'fair play' mystery, with Dannay said to have largely provided the plots and Lee most of the writing. The cousins also founded ELLERY QUEEN'S MYSTERY MAGAZINE in 1941, which is still considered one of the most influential crime fiction publications of all time. While Frederic Dannay outlived his cousin and co-author by 11 years, he retired from writing at the time of Lee's death.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Orion Fiction (19 Jun. 2014)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 300 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1409146340
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1409146346
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 20.1 x 2.4 x 13.2 cm
  • Customer reviews:
    4.0 4.0 out of 5 stars 149 ratings

About the author

Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.
Ellery Queen
Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.
Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Ellery Queen was a pen name created and shared by two cousins, Frederic Dannay (1905–1982) and Manfred B. Lee (1905–1971), as well as the name of their most famous detective. Born in Brooklyn, they spent forty-two years writing, editing, and anthologizing under the name, gaining a reputation as the foremost American authors of the Golden Age "fair play" mystery. Besides writing the Queen novels, Dannay and Lee cofounded Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, one of the most influential crime publications of all time. Although Dannay outlived his cousin by nine years, he retired Queen upon Lee's death in 1971.

Customer reviews

4 out of 5 stars
149 global ratings

Review this product

Share your thoughts with other customers

Top reviews from United Kingdom

  • Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 8 June 2015
    A good read. Intricate plot.
  • Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 29 April 2015
    Give a man a gun containing no bullets and ask him to point it at a blank wall and pull the trigger. What happens? Well, in the world of Ellery Queen he manages to shoot another man who is in another room with a locked steel door and no windows or other points of ingress across the guarded hallway outside. It’s a lovely problem, and enticing enough for even the most casual crime reader before you mention that it flowed from the dual pens of Frederic Dannay and Manfred Lee, two of the most important figures in the development of the crime story.

    Before we get there, however, we must first endure what feels like a lampoon of a Roger Moore Bond, with Queen father and son taken to a reclusive, overweening oligarch’s secluded secret island, confronted by his immeasurable power, influence and wealth, his gorgeous trophy woman and his frank indifference to their mission of discovering who is threatening his life. What’s weird is that Bond himself was just a gleam in his author’s eye when this was published, with Casino Royale a year or so away still, so this setup is probably more original than the intervening years imply. It’s also a pretty fun context for an Ellery Queen detective novel, which is why it’s a shame there’s so little actual detection in it.

    The vox populi would have it that (author) Ellery Queen can do no wrong but, while (detective) Ellery’s acumen once again comes to the fore and solves the underlying mysteries, this is really rather turgid once the detection begins (confined largely to one hideously over-long chapter, high on verisimilitude but low on narrative spice). The solution to the impossible shooting is also unfortunately rather tame, one that I had hoped would be a deliberate ploy before the fireworks began, and also slightly unusual in that it seems to regard such things as actual proof to be rather superfluous – surely an EQ first! The bigger mystery is how it takes Ellery and his father weeks and weeks to actually solve the thing...hardly demonstrating the precocious genius on show previously.

    The King is Dead isn’t the most successful attempt at a locked room mystery, then, though many may prefer its understated directness to the histrionics of say John Dickson Carr’s grand guignol characters and tone (not me, though; Carr is a master). Remains a footnote in the history of impossible crime, and a weird one given its rightly-adored provenance; for completists only.
    One person found this helpful
    Report
  • Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 27 October 2014
    Not quite what I was expecting but enjoyable nonetheless. A good plot and well defined, sympathetic characters. I will definitely try more Queen books.
  • Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 21 June 2014
    Book as downloaded ends about two chapters short of the denouement. I have requested a refund. It is a shame you can't report errors like this to the publishers.
    3 people found this helpful
    Report

Top reviews from other countries

  • TMS6
    5.0 out of 5 stars A real page turner
    Reviewed in the United States on 15 November 2024
    Great puzzle that you won't figure out. 9
    Could not put it down. The characters will fool you with their appearance
  • Robert M. Harden
    4.0 out of 5 stars Fast paced and interesting read. Better than I expected.
    Reviewed in the United States on 1 August 2016
    The puzzle at the heart of the story was very good. The "how" kept me guessing if not the "who." I was rather surprised how quickly everything was resolved at the end. I was expecting some more exciting.
  • Okemos56
    3.0 out of 5 stars Passable
    Reviewed in the United States on 1 July 2023
    There are enough twists in this EQ murder mystery to make it passable in the end, but there is a fair amount of so-so material in the middle. The story is set on set an island run by a rich armaments manufacturer like a kingdom and is fantastic. It is also (as pointed out in another review) James Bondian.
    The King (the person's first name too) is shot and almost dies in a locked room par excellence. The basic means, for all the words and angst spent over it, is not that difficult to figure out, but some of the exact details and motives are. The psychology--and this is one of EQ's later works that focuses on psychology--is doubtful by today's standards and given in a report form. There's a tie-in to Wrightsville that seems unnecessary. Three-and-a-half stars for me: I spent several hours happily reading it (skimming parts), but I wouldn't read it again.
  • Charlene
    5.0 out of 5 stars A Different sort of EQ
    Reviewed in the United States on 23 April 2023
    This novel takes a look at absolute power, corruption, and the violence of politics. The view of personality, and the influence of fathers on sons comes to the fore. It is quite illustrative of modern problems.
  • HRH Victoria IIR
    4.0 out of 5 stars Ahead Of It's Time & near on to political turmoil tat still continues today.
    Reviewed in the United States on 1 June 2014
    A well plotted story with a parallel origin in the political diversity of the era which continues to manifest itself in the new headlines.